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UK News

Maths teacher from London up for million-dollar Nobel-style award

A maths teacher who has created more than a thousand videos explaining the subject to children will find out if he has won a million-dollar Nobel-style award. Colin Hegarty, of Preston Manor School in Wembley, north-west London, has made it to the final 10 shortlisted for the second annual Varkey Foundation Global Teacher Prize, which recognises an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to the profession. The winner will be announced during a ceremony at the Global Education and Skills Forum (GESF) in Dubai on Sunday. Mr Hegarty, 34, said he was “excited” about being in the running for the prize.

I’m particularly excited about meeting the other people shortlisted. One of my favourite things is watching other teachers teach.

Colin Hegarty

Mr Hegarty grew up in a London council flat and went on to study at Oxford University, gaining a first-class degree in maths. Mr Hegarty started creating maths videos around four years ago, after an A-level student had to take time off to see his sick father and was worried about falling behind. To help the student, he put his maths lessons online. The student kept up with his studies and passed his A-level. Since then, Mr Hegarty has made more than 1,000 videos, which are freely available for anyone to use and have collectively had around six million views. In the last year, after winning a UK teaching prize, Mr Hegarty has taken a sabbatical to set up a new website showcasing his tutorials. It is currently available in around 70 schools. The other nine finalists are drawn from around the world, including Pakistan, Kenya, Palestine, the USA, Japan, Finland, Australia and India.

I would like to use it to make this website change maths education.

Colin Hegarty said if he wins the Global Teacher Prize, he will invest the money in his website